From ancient burial mounds to the colonial era and beyond, West Virginia is full of history. But one historical moment that was especially defining for us as a state was the Civil War.

There's a high, rugged ridge that runs 50 miles long and up to 5 miles wide in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia: Cheat Mountain.
Donnie Nunley/Flickr
It spans the length of Randolph County and was strategically important during the first year of the Civil War.
For one thing, it was the site of the highest Union camp in the Civil War: Fort Milroy or Cheat Mountain Fort. It was a miserable place for a winter camp: high, windy, cold...but it had a great view of the crucial Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike.
Chris Clark/Google Maps
There's now a small observational platform at the site of the old camp.
Cheat Summit Fort was perched on White Top, a knob and spur of Cheat Mountain.
Wikipedia
It rises 4,085 feet in elevation, and in 1861, the year the Union army camped at its peak, it snowed on August 13. Horses froze to death by mid-September. The Union soldiers were happy to abandon the place by April of 1862.

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You'll find a few road signs and informational posts in the area, but not many.
Schizodoc/Tripadvisor
So it's helpful to know what you are looking for.
There are still remnants of earthworks from the various battles that took place in the area.
Brian M. Powell/Wikipedia
There was also a graveyard just south of the top of the knob for men who died in battle on Cheat Mountain.
garythephenom/Tripadvisor
The graves were later exhumed and the remains reburied in the National Cemetery in Grafton, but you can still see the depressions of the gravesites at the original Fort Milroy Cemetery.

Did you know about this historic site? If you head out to explore it someday, check out the nearby Allegheny Mountain Battlefield as well.

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